I’ve recently been looking for models for a number of stock photo shoots that I’m planning. This is a process that always frustrates me, mostly because many people, especially those who put themselves out there through the various “modeling websites” can be, let’s say, a little flaky. As a result, I like to use “real people” as much as I can. Friends, friends of friends, friends of my wife, friends of my wife’s friends, my doctor, my lawyer, clients, anyone really that doesn’t actually fancy themselves a model makes the best model for most stock photography.

Having said that, real people are not always available and I’m forced to turn to either agencies or the model message boards that exist.

I’m only being a little funny when I offer up my 10 most important rules for modelling for a photographer

1. Don’t be a flake. If you give out your email address and phone number you should be expecting others to contact you and leave messages. Check ‘em once in a while and return those messages as quickly as you can. Playing hard to get does not make you more valuable, it just makes you hard to hire.

2. Use your real name or at least use the same name consistently. Seriously, some people actually change their name regularly and I actually had one model completely ignore my direction on a shoot once because, as she said, “I was using her old name”. You mean the one that YOU used when I hired you? WTF??

3. Same for email. killapoontang53@shithead.com or rockinmylook234@douche.com are not professional email addresses and professional photographers who make a living taking pictures are generally not impressed with your jeuvenile handles. In fact, it makes you look imature or sketchy.

4. Don’t take yourself too seriously. This ain’t Vogue. I actually had a model, who I was considering for a shoot, ask me if we could spend some time together in advance and “get to know each other as artist and muse so that our creations could be more real”. I don’t know what the fuck that meant but, the pretentious nonsense of that sentance made me a little naseous. I want you to sit on the sofa and pretend to talk on a cell phone, we’re not making Mona Lisa’s here.

5. Show me some range. If your portfolio is 25 images of you dressed up as a vampire in torn fishnets, don’t expect to get any other work than posing as a vampire in torn fishnets.

6. Be honest with yourself. If you hate modeling, give it up. If you’re not comfortable in front of a camera, give it up. If you can’t stand taking direction from someone else, find a new job. Some people show up with a “been there, done that” attitude that follows them around like a cloud. I get it, you were on page 197 of the September 2001 issue of Croatian Vogue. Pretending to have coffee with friends while I take your picture is beneath you. I can’t help you get work with Chanel but I can prevent you from ever making a decent hourly rate doing easy stuff for me again.

7. No, I don’t want you to take your clothes off. Stop telling me you don’t do nudes. I never asked. No, I don’t care that you do implieds either, I’m still not interested in seeing you naked. Seriously, no need to put it in all caps in your profile. I get it. you don’t need to tell me five times on set.

8. If you have a day rate and you won’t work for less, just tell me. I have a budget that I can’t go over. If I cannot afford you, that’s OK, I’m not offended and I respect your business sense. On the other hand, if your minimum is $2500 a day and I’ve never heard your name, you should have your head examined. You’re high and you need rehab. It’s stock photography, not gold bar making, I’ll never sell pics of you mountain biking for enough money to justify the crazy rate you think you’re worth. Just be honest, if what I pay is not enough for you, that’s OK, I’ll find someone else. If it is OK, let’s get to work. Don’t act like you’re doing me a favour working for so cheap. Don’t tell me you usually get ten times that, we both know you’re lying.

9. If I say “local only” it means I can’t afford travel expenses and so, I’m hiring local talent. Don’t pretend you’re local and then contact me two days before the shoot asking how much travel I’ll cover. Local means you’re not expecting to get paid to travel.

10. Show up on time. Show up on time. Show up on time. In fact.. show up a little early. Don’t cancel at the last minute. if you do, dont make up some bullshit about how your cat has a hemmerhoid attack. Be honest, it increases your chances that I’ll try you again next time (but only slightly).

Act like you want to be there. Relax, be nice and have fun. Don’t sit there like a lump on a log with a scowl on your face. Put the phone away and stop texting, emailing, surfing, chatting etc. etc.

…..Next up; 10 tips for renting out your location for a stock photo shoot. Or, “no, I really don’t care that Clint Eastwood paid you $10,000 a day in ‘71 to use your barn in a movie, $100 is all I can justify for the day and we promise to clean up when we’re done”.

So, Outside mag shoots Lance Armstrong (yet again!) for the June cover. They then PS in some logo on his t-shirt. Lance is pissed and gets all tweety. The wires pick it up and now it’s everywhere:

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/post/Lance-Armstrong-rips-magazine-for-altered-cover-?urn=top%2C248976

What I’m wondering is, when’s PDN gonna run a story about how pissed the shooter is that they paid a photoshop guy more than they paid him to shoot it? D’oh!

Some pics are worth 0.10 cents, some are worth millions. Understanding which is which? Faggetaboutit, you’re too thick. In fact, so am I so, I follow Donald Trump’s philosophy and assume every time I press the shutter, that image is the greatest, most fabulous, most incredible, classiest and highest quality image ever created and it’s worth at least millions, if not priceless. But hey, I’m open to offers.

Check out this interesting article from the Sydney Morning Herald about amateur photogs and copyright.

http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/a-pictures-worth-a-thousand-words–and-dollars-20100504-u6y8.html

My favourite part is “Had the student licensed the one-off image from the very start, however, he might have pocketed up to $60,000 for the now-famous image that was later sold to newspapers and magazines around the world.” You already know the rest don’t you?

http://www.creativebeacon.com/why-i-respect-professional-photographers/

The Dude Abides!

There’s been a ton of microstock goof ups making the rounds lately and one of the most entertaining blogs on the subject is here: http://fairtradephotographer.blogspot.com/2010/03/microstock-why-would-reputable-company.html. Most of these are pretty harmless though (in some cases, misleading and disingenuous on behalf of the advertiser but, that’s nothing new). In any event, most of the MS mistakes that happen, happen because it’s not critical to the advertiser to be using a different image than their competition.  Here’s a new twist though, in the UK, one political party used a MS image of a woman as an endorsement (check the terms of use guys, don’t think you can do that) and the opposing party deliberately found the image, licensed it as well (that’s the whole point of RF) and turned around and created an ad with the same woman in order to discredit the first user and make it look like their endorser had jumped ship.

Firstly, props to the grease ball who thought this up. It might be polically slimy but, you gotta admit, someone was staying up late brainstorming hard to come up with this one.

Second, how fuckingstupidarethesegoddamnpeople?  Seriously, this shot could have been commissioned and shot in studio for $500 and for under a grand, you could have had all rights forever if you approached any reasonable photographer. Yeah, find a model or campaign volunteer, book a studio and, bobsyeruncle! Done, it might have cost you $995 more than buying it from ShitStock.com. But seriously, it’s not worth a grand to you to have complete control of your image in the middle of a political campaign? And these guys wanna be in charge?

I got a new iPad a week or so ago. I like geeky stuff and prefer to be on the front edge of technology rather than the back edge. In this case, the iPad was bought purely for the ability to make portfolios to show clients and agencies. See, a decent portfolio costs $500 and if you shoot a bunch of different stuff, as I do, you need two or three books or a lot of time on your hands to swap out loose prints. In short, portfolios are a pain in the ass, always hated ‘em. Worse still, going around with one of those carrying cases that every portfolio manufacturer throws in makes you look like an asshole. Receptionists at agencies must be soooo tired of the parade of same looking oversized cases being handled like IED’s by their eager (and now broke) hopeful owners. If you spent $700 for the crocodile skin, you’re an even bigger asshole. But I digress.

In the case of the iPad, pics look great on it, really great. And unlike paper or those stupid sleeves, you can wipe off the tzaziki sauce that every agency AD eventually leaves all over your precious book. Better still, you can have ten different portfolios, all with different types of work, so that you can tailor what you show to clients based on what you think they’d like to see.

So, I convinced myself that I needed the iPad in order to save money on portfolios. Frankly, for $500, the iTampon’s a bargain. Would I buy it if i was not using it for portfolios? Nope (and this should scare you Apple because, I buy everything Steve Jobs dreams up). If you already have a laptop, skip the pad. If you travel a lots, read a lot or want to be three years ahead of everyone else, go get an iPad otherwise, just wait three months. a better one will come out, for $100 less, that’s twice as fast. Worse still, if you’re a photographer, you’re going to need to save your money because CS5 comes out tomorrow so, when Canon releases it’s 1Ds MK4 later this summer, you’re not going to be able to look at the RAW files without giving Adobe $500 to upgrade!

Now, back on the hamster wheel everyone!
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I shoot a lot of stock. It’s my retirement plan.. Mostly though, I do it because it means I get to shoot whatever I want, wherever and whenever I want and, in doing so, it makes me a better photographer. This is true for a couple of reasons, firstly, by shooting whatever I want, on my own timeline, I’m able to better create images and tweak them in ways that are sometimes not possible on a commercial job. Timelines and budgets are, most of the time, not nearly as much of a factor, so, I’m free to create images the way I want to. Secondly, the quality standards for acceptance at most of the major stock agencies are far higher than what most clients expect so, learning what produces the highest quality imagery and maintaining those standards helps me tremendously with final client work. And lastly, I’m able to experiment with ideas and techniques that most clients are unwilling to indulge on their budget. Some of these things fail miserably and others become techniques and ideas that work very nicely and can be transferred to other commercial jobs in the future.

Think it’s simple? try producing your own stock shoot and then submit a package of images to one of the major agencies and seek representation. Oh the things you’ll learn!

Some recent images from my latest stock shoot in New Mexico:

I know you’ve been long since bored to death with experts talking about backups, workflow and other related backend processes but, since I just finished revamping my backup system and replacing my MacPro with a new one, it occurred to me recently that, after a client told me a story about a recent experience they had, I was reminded why this was important. Here’s the backstory, a long time client of mine recently told me how they had hired another photographer, at half the cost, to shoot a job. They told me the decision was made purely on price. Fair enough, it happens. But, I ask, why did they call me back for this most recent job? Well, the story is that after shooting the job, cheapo photog doesn’t call the client back or deliver the files until two weeks later when the client calls them. “Well”, says cheapo, “I’ve been having some computer trouble, my computer crashed and so I took it into the shop, I talked to them yesterday and they say they don’t think I’ll be able to retrieve the files so, the shoot might be lost”. Client then says “well, when can we reschedule a reshoot” and cheapo says, “as soon as you pay my first invoice”. Skip to the end of the story and now I’m doing the reshoot, at twice the price and have a client that’s unlikely to look elsewhere again anytime soon.

This is where the line between a professional photographer running a business and the GWC’s living with their parents is drawn. I’m more expensive because I’m running a professional business, with all the right tools and that costs money. I have not one but two MacPro towers. One fails, the other gets plugged in and put into service. I don’t have one copy of your shoot, I have 5. That’s right, 5! As soon as I get back to the office, the shoot goes onto a working drive and a duplicate is made and stored in a safe. A third copy is made to an archive drive which is then backed up each night to a fourth archive. Lastly, once a week, a fifth copy is made and stored off site in case something major happens. Once I’m done the edit and deliver the files to the client, the working drive is archived and then wiped clean. So, call me in two years looking for images I shot in 2007 and, I have not only the original RAW files stored in a safe but, I have the delivered work stored on three different drives. I can tell you that not a month goes by that a client isn’t calling looking for stuff I shot for them in the past. They lost the disk or misplaced the files and need a new copy. For a very small disk burn and deliver fee, i can dig up the old files and send them off. Doesn’t matter if my computer crashed, Apple updated their OS and I wiped the drive, a virus gets into the system or I spill coffee all over the archive, I can still come up with a copy. This is part of running a professional business and clients expect this sort of service, even if they don’t know they need it until it they find out they need it, which happens all the time. Cheapo only has one copy because having and maintaining five at the prices he charges means he can’t afford it. Besides, “clients never call back looking for files a year later do they? And hey, losing one shoot is no big deal right? They’ll still pay for the shoot cause I showed up, it’s not my fault the computer crashed, right?”

Do it wrong and you’ll get clients once, do it right and you’ll keep clients forever.

It’s still a little too busy around here but, I’m starting to get caught up with post and some various day jobs for clients so, I hope to get back to posting more regularly soon. That said, here’s something that I got a kick out of when I saw it. I belong to the the APA Los Angeles chapter and I get daily updates of the Yahoo group which can sometimes be full of interesting discussion. Over the last few days, a thread developed about pricing (yeah, no one ever talks about that), and someone posted links to a Craiglist ads and a response. No doubt, the original poster of the ad got hammered with negative email because he was looking for free work so, it was taken down within hours but, one of the APA members had saved it and posted it on his blog, check it out here:

It’s been a crazy 6 or 7 weeks. I’ve created imagery for about a dozen annual reports and been in more hotel rooms, airplanes and helicopters than I care to remember. I’ve been jamming through post at a furious pace and am finally taking a break to head down to Santa Fe tomorrow to take a break and indulge in one of the great workshops they put on down there. Getting together with friends and enjoying a few tequilas is also high on the agenda. the only drawback is the weather there looks like it’s worse than what we’re having right here in Calgary.

Either way, here’s a few images from the last months work: